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I just started day trading ES futures on Friday (3/4/16). After briefly paper trading a system that is essentially buying higher lows (admittedly not long enough to be what anyone would consider a thorough test) I decided to go live trading 1 contract at a time.

On my first day (3/4/16) I made what I can see now was a stupid mistake and I would guess I'm not the first to make it. After my first live trade, which went well, I got all nervous about my risk and tightened up the stops instead of leaving them where my system dictated. This lead to me getting stopped out of two trades that would have combined for about ~12 points then proceeded to make two bad rage trades which were losses. In total I was up on the day, but not anywhere near what I should have been. I can't miss out on those trades and still be successful over the long term.

I see from other journals that it is the norm to record points, not dollars, I like that. It's more like score for being right. After today I will have to keep better track of points.

Today I was positive PnL more than I was my first day, but I don't know the points. When I look at my order history it shows all the times I move my stop or my target as orders. It would take amonth of Sundays for me to figure out what was what. Tomorrow I will log trades in a notebook.

The inverse of buying higher lows is selling lower highs, which it looks like we've set the last couple of days along with corresponding lower lows. That along with the ascending wedge shape that's been forming since the bottom a will have me on the lookout for an opportunity to sell today.

Observations of overnight: We might be setting the sellable lower high right here about an hour before open and so far I only trade the day session so I may miss it. Second observation is that the downward trendline since yesterdays open outcry high is rather steep. One might normally be weary of a bounce off that line, but it's steep enough that I'm not convinced price will contact it again. We will see.

Really screwed the pooch today. I once again let myself get stopped out of a two good trades. A short at open And a long off the bottom of the ascending wedge I had been watching. After that I got frustrated and went short es long nq which I have no idea how to do. I know I shouldn't do it because I know I don't know how to do that, but I did it anyway.

In short I really didn't learn much today - I didn't things I already knew I shouldn't do.

Really screwed the pooch today. I once again let myself get stopped out of a two good trades. A short at open And a long off the bottom of the ascending wedge I had been watching. After that I got frustrated and went short es long nq which I have no idea how to do. I know I shouldn't do it because I know I don't know how to do that, but I did it anyway.

In short I really didn't learn much today - I didn't things I already knew I shouldn't do.

hope you learn from your experience to research before you make crucial decisions.

hope you learn from your experience to research before you make crucial decisions.

good day

Thanks for the feedback. I've been kicking myself in the butt since then, still am this morning, and thinking of taking the day off so I'm not trading emotionally. Which I think right this minute I would be. On the plus side, I'm pretty confident I've learning to not throw caution to the wind.

After I finish my morning prep I'll see how I feel and decide then if I'm trading today or not.

I just started day trading ES futures on Friday (3/4/16). After briefly paper trading a system that is essentially buying higher lows (admittedly not long enough to be what anyone would consider a thorough test) I decided to go live trading 1 contract at a time.

On my first day (3/4/16) I made what I can see now was a stupid mistake and I would guess I'm not the first to make it. After my first live trade, which went well, I got all nervous about my risk and tightened up the stops instead of leaving them where my system dictated. This lead to me getting stopped out of two trades that would have combined for about ~12 points then proceeded to make two bad rage trades which were losses. In total I was up on the day, but not anywhere near what I should have been. I can't miss out on those trades and still be successful over the long term.

Day 1

5 trades
+$71 after fees.

Hi Nubevestor - I'd say that paper trading and live trading, while appearing similar, can actually be two significantly different experience, often because of pressure and psychological factors playing a much bigger role when using real money than when not. It's a hurdle that anyone wanting to trade needs to necessarily go through in my view. Hope it helps.

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In retrospect it appears we've been in something of a channel the last few days. For my purposes thought the trend of lower highs is broken so I will have to watch the chart to see what happens. From past observations this could either be the start of a different uptrend or we could flush right back down and set a lower low, so basically I have nothing actionable.

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Hi Nubevestor - I'd say that paper trading and live trading, while appearing similar, can actually be two significantly different experience, often because of pressure and psychological factors playing a much bigger role when using real money than when not. It's a hurdle that anyone wanting to trade needs to necessarily go through in my view. Hope it helps.

It certainly feels that way so far. I've been stopped out of several good trades in just my first few days because I'm risk averse. I had a long talk about it with my girlfriend last night who tried to reassure me that it's monopoly money so I shouldn't worry. I'm not convinced yet, I will have to work on being so skerred for sure.